Jinx, the Loose Cannon, revealed

By Feanor - 27th September 2013 - 05:55 AM

Riot's latest champion has been revealed, another marksman!

Fire up your minigun and take aim with a massive death launcher as Jinx, the Loose Cannon. Packing major attitude and equipped with a cornucopia of carnage, Jinx is a marksman primed to leave your foes marked for demolition.

Abilities

Get Excited!Jinx gains a massive movement speed boost whenever a champion or tower that she's recently attacked is killed or destroyed. This boost decays over time.

Switcheroo!Jinx swaps weapons:

Fishbones, the rocket launcher: Jinx's basic attacks consume mana but gain increased range and deal increased damage to her target and nearby enemies.Pow-Pow, the minigun: Jinx's basic attacks grant attack speed for a short duration, stacking up to three times. Stacks fall off one at a time once Jinx stops attacking.

Zap!Jinx snaps off an electrical blast that deals damage to and slows the first enemy hit.

Flame Chompers!Jinx throws out a line of snare grenades that detonate after a few seconds, lighting nearby enemies on fire. Enemy champions who walk over a grenade will cause it to detonate early, rooting them briefly.

Super Mega Death Rocket!Jinx fires a global rocket that gains damage as it travels. The rocket explodes on the first enemy champion hit, dealing damage to the target and all nearby enemies based on a percentage of their missing health.

Gameplay

Bot laneJinx is a versatile marksman armed with an arsenal of eclectic weapons. Her assortment of arms wreaks a ton of havoc, enabling her to deal brutal bouts of damage at the expense of mobility. One of the most important facets to playing Jinx is harnessing the power of Switcheroo! to safely harass her enemies from a distance with her rocket launcher before unleashing a hail of minigun pain when the moment calls.

Despite her lack of built-in escapes, Jinx stores a few maneuvers inside her hyperactive brain that help her avoid ganks. Flame Chompers! briefly snares encroaching junglers, a well-timed Zap! discourages pursuit and careful management of objectives provide a massive speed boost thanks to Get Excited! triggering when a tower falls.And towers will fall. Clearing waves through liberal use of her rocket launcher's area of effect attacks, Jinx brings constant lane pressure. Keeping her opponents on their heels, or making it impossible for them to pressure her, helps ensure she makes it to the mid- and late-game stages where her tremendous potential truly shines.

One thing, though, that remains to be said: there's almost never a time when a Super Mega Death Rocket isn't just about the best possible answer to any problem. Jinx's ultimate is a global execute that picks up speed as it hurtles towards an unsuspecting victim's facial area. Whether KO-ing a low-health enemy team during an early-level Baron fight from across the map or nailing a retreating foe for the last-second kill, there's nothing a well-placed Super Mega Death Rocket can't do. Except hit non-champions. It can't do that.

Teamfights

Jinx begins to dish out the damage once teamfights break out. Lacking reliable peel or protection for herself, though, she relies on her positioning and her teammates to keep her alive while she sends her enemies screaming. Jinx's range and damage remain potent throughout the game, making her ideal in a composition built around long-range poke. In the heat of battle, using her rocket launcher and Zap! from a distance helps whittle down enemies until she scores a kill, while Flame Chompers! create zones that opposing champs would do well to avoid. Once Get Excited! triggers, Jinx unlocks her clean-up potential, quickly repositioning to avoid threats and mowing down stragglers trying to run away.

Story

Jinx lives to wreak havoc without a thought for consequence, leaving a trail of mayhem and panic in her wake. A manic and impulsive criminal, she despises nothing more than boredom, and gleefully unleashes her own volatile brand of pandemonium to the one place she finds dullest: Piltover. With an arsenal of deadly toys, she unleashes the brightest explosions and loudest blasts - all the better to shock and surprise the hapless authorities. Always just out of the law's reach, Jinx's favorite game is to toy with Piltover's finest - especially Vi.

Piltover had long been known as the City of Progress, a place where peace and order reigned. That serenity was challenged when a new kind of criminal arrived, the likes of whom had never been seen. This mysterious outlaw unleashed a series of warped and destructive capers that endangered the entire city, and left its people reeling from the worst crime spree in Piltover's history.

As the string of crimes without rhyme or reason hit the city, sightings of the lawbreaker emerged. Though the young woman's origins were a mystery, some saw traces of Piltover hextech in her firearms, while others described the street fashions of Zaun in her dress. Because her arrival always brought trouble with it, those who crossed her path soon gave her a name: Jinx.

Jinx's rampage escalated. Caitlyn - the sheriff of Piltover - responded by declaring a state of emergency and organizing a city-wide manhunt. In typical Jinx fashion, the criminal marked the Piltover treasury, the city's most secure building, with a direct challenge to its most abrasive officer. With a caricature of Vi's face splashed across the treasury's facade, and with a time and date of her supposed raid, Jinx was openly daring the enforcer to stop her from robbing it.

Determined to put the troublemaker behind bars, Vi watched and waited outside the treasury until Jinx's time had finally come. True to her scrawled promise, the smiling menace showed her face. Knowing this was her chance to capture the outlaw, Vi gave chase into the building's interior. She smashed through wall after wall to chase down Jinx, who giggled as she lit up the evacuated treasury with fiery explosions. Vi finally cornered the criminal inside the vault, but Jinx wasn't done just yet. With a maniacal laugh, she fired a barrage of rockets, bringing the entire building down upon them both.

When Vi finally crawled out of the ruins, the battered enforcer found no trace of Jinx. Adding insult to injury, not a single ounce of gold had been taken from the ruined vault. Instead, the criminal left a parting message to her favorite officer of the law - a challenge only now visible through the gaping opening in Piltover's skyline. The lights of the city spelled out a simple taunt: you'll never catch me. As Vi read the message, she heard the distant laughter of her new nemesis, and the city plunged into utter darkness for the very first time.